Summit Hotel and Apartment has been found to have started construction without passing its design map and completing environmental impact assessment (EIA).
The project caught attention when surrounding houses subsided early Saturday morning due to construction works at the project site.
The project is constructing a 16-story building in the name of The Summit Hotel and Residences that will have a five-star hotel with 130 rooms and 160 units of luxury apartments with investment of over Rs 6 billion, according to the management.
Three business houses jointly own the project with Amrit Raj Shakya, owner of the old Summit Hotel, owning 40 percent stake, Chaudhary Group owned by Nepali Congress (NC) lawmaker Binod Chaudhary 30 percent, and NE Group led by former chairman of the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry and former minister Ravi Bhakta Shrestha the remaining 30 percent.
Ravi Bhakta Shrestha is chairman of the project while Sanchit Shrestha is the project director. The Shresthas refused to talk with Setopati despite repeated efforts.
The project issued a statement in the name of project director Shrestha on Monday and promised that ‘further works would be done as per the agreement with the locals in presence of the people’s representatives’ while the Chaudhary Group also issued a separate statement pointing that it only had less than one-third stake in the project and was not involved in project management.
Commissioner for Lalitpur district of the Kathmandu Valley Development Authority (KVDA) Safal Shrestha confirmed with Setopati that the project had started construction without passing the map and completing EIA.
He revealed that the project had applied for passing the map on February 22, 2022 but it was delayed in lack of adequate documents. “They apparently had started construction works without receiving permission.”
He stressed that the KVDA had even written to the project in September 2022 to stop construction after complaints that it started construction. He added that the documents have been provided now by the project but decision to grant permission can be taken only by the board meeting and has yet to be taken.
The Lalitpur Metropolitan City (LMC), meanwhile, has said that Summit Hotel and Apartment will face stringent punishment for violating the laws. Construction at the site has already been stopped. “We will stop construction of the hotel if a hotel cannot be constructed there,” Deputy Mayor Manjali Shakya Bajracharya told Setopati.
She pointed that a probe committee had already been formed and the process to take action against the developers would start only after the committee submits its report.
Another committee under Deputy Mayor Bajracharya, and including chairs of Wards 1 and 2 and officer from the Lalitpur District Administration Office, representatives from the developers and the affected persons, has also been formed to resolve the problems of the affected individuals.
She revealed that the affected persons were shifted from there and Summit will have to bear all the expenses for relocating them, providing accommodation to them and reconstruction of the damaged houses.
A meeting at the LMC on Sunday had also decided to immediately form a fund of Rs 10 million to address the problems faced by the affected persons.
